TRAINING THE MIND AND BODY

Monthly Archives: November 2013

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One of the biggest downfalls for people who are beginning to lift weights is that they are too embarrassed to ask for help. Their egos are too big to ask someone to correct their form or to spot them. They feel that asking for help would put them in a negative light.

In reality, people at the gym are open to teaching beginners how to lift properly. Everybody in the gym was a beginner at one point, and most feel the need to pass on the knowledge they learned from others.

There are really no downsides to asking for help; you can learn a lot just by asking one question.

Similarly, with our innovation projects, we are all open to ideas that would improve the quality and content of the projects. We’ve been given many suggestions from classmates and Mr. Theriault to help strengthen the weak points of our projects. With those ideas and suggestions, we can make our projects a whole lot greater.-Andy P2

Usually, people are expected to dream big, to do the impossible. In fitness, this usually means losing X amount of pounds in X time. The people who set this type of goal will not succeed. In order to succeed, people must be boring.

Hamlet was consumed by a desire for revenge; everything he did was to avenge his father. He began to devising a huge scheme to punish his uncle, however as the play went on, he grew entangled in the details, slowing him down. In the same vein, following a broad plan of weight loss will only be confusing and discouraging, especially when goals are not reached. For most people, the key to success would be setting small goals. This may include simple things like cutting out soda, or going to the gym three times a week. An acronym I like to use in this situation is K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid). By keeping these tasks small, people are more inclined to follow through. This solves the main problem: consistency.

By keeping things simple, you are laying down the foundation for success

The main point of setting these smaller goals is so that people will complete, because at the end of the day, leaving these goals incomplete will make them as useful as the vegetables that rot away in the back of your refrigerator. The secret to achieving goals is to be a boring person. No, this does not mean having a bland personality. It means that you make your life a routine. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at six o clock, you go to the gym. Every morning, you make yourself a protein shake and you down it on the way to school. Every night, you go to bed at ten thirty, no matter if you finished your homework or not. After a while, these acts become a habit. These habits will be ladder that help you reach the goals that seem unattainable.

When you start a project, a goal, or even a weight loss plan, starting it with someone else is integral because that person will keep you going. You stick together and succeed together.

Similarly, I think it’s great when a classroom shares their ideas, projects, and opinions together. It keeps the class tight-knit, and it keeps each person accountable for the completion of their project.

Jealousy and envy. It exists everywhere, stemming from a variety of different things. You can be jealous of your best friend for scoring higher on a test. You can be jealous of your brother for getting better genes.

You can be jealous of your friend for having a nicer car, or you can be envious of your sisters double cheese burger.

Whatever the situation, envy is an ugly thing. Most of the time, such feelings of jealousy can spur hate and possibly actions.

The most common type of jealousy I’ve seen is the one between girls. Why is it that girls, most of the time, hate each other even at first glance? As soon as they exchange a fake smile and go their separate ways, girls turn around and immediately make rude comments about the other girls hair, or makeup or clothes.

Other times, girls are envious of each others’ bodies.In my opinion, this is the worst kind of envy.

It’s degrading to compare yourself to someone else, because at the end of the day we’re all unlike each other. Girls can stare at magazines all day, raging on how their body doesn’t look like Miranda Kerr’s or Beyonce.

Instead of being green with envy, girls should be green with veggies!

Don’t ask why you can’t have a body like her or her. Instead of complaining, change it. You can start going to the gym, eating healthier, and toning up.

One example of jealousy is seen in Hamlet, when Claudius kills his own brother because he finds himself so jealous of him. He wanted his brothers’ wife, his life, and his power. Instead of working on himself to become a better person, Claudius let his envy take over. He solved a temporary lust with a permanent ‘solution’.

Envy and jealousy are both poisonous serpents, armed with the ability to turn any situation bad.

Having a positive mentality is crucial to accomplishing goals. Giving yourself trust and confidence boosts your morale and drive. High morale and lots of drive puts your body in a state of supernatural feeling; you feel like any obstacle is part of the journey to success, not something that will prevent you from success. When you feel great, you will become great.

Adversely, having a negative mentality accomplishes nothing. When you become pessimistic, you tell your brain that no matter how hard you try, you won’t accomplish what you set out for. Your body becomes unmotivated and unwilling to continue on, as it feels like there’s no purpose or reason to try. It asks itself, “Why try when I know I’m going to fail?” Likewise, Hamlet has a very pessimistic outlook on life after the death of his father to the point where he contemplates suicide.

One possible tool to use to motivate yourself is transformation pictures. These are basically before and after pictures, and usually the results of the person’s hard work is visible. It’s incredible seeing how much one person is able to change their body. Seeing these real results could be the catalysts for people to start making changes in their own life. For those of us that are struggling, this could be the factor that keeps us moving forward. After all, if some random stranger on the internet can do it, so can you!

From skinny to swole

The best transformation pictures for motivating though, are ones of yourself. Taking before and after pictures of your body can be a huge motivating factor. Seeing how your body changes week by week, month by month, gives you visible encouragement. And if you ever reach an endpoint, you can use these pictures to look back and see how far you’ve come. More importantly, you can post these photos so that others will be inspired and continue the circle of inspiration. This same idea holds true in our innovation projects; by seeing others innovate, we are inspired to do work on our own. Our very own Minh Thu Le has posted her transformation pictures for others to see. Mine will be posted soon. Check them out on our About Us page! In addition, if you would like to see more possible pictures, check them out here.

Feeling guilty about sneaking in that piece of fried chicken? Don’t even sweat it! Othello killed himself because he strangled his one true love. That piece of fried chicken definitely is nothing compared to that reason.

Binge eating can make you feel like an uncontrollable little child

Dieting is the hardest thing about achieving a great body. You can run five miles, lift heavy weights, but at the end of the day, if you eat a hamburger and a milkshake, all your exercise will be for naught. For most people, starting the diet is easy enough. They eat healthy for one, two weeks, but then they cave in to temptation and then start binge eating. This results in a complete loss of control of their diet, and they revert back to their former, unhealthy ways. They feel like because they ate that bad food, they’ve failed in their goals and there’s no reason to continue trying. This is completely untrue.

Binge eating is just another obstacle that you have to overcome. Sure, it may seem like the end of the world now, but in the long run, you shouldn’t let that one slip-up change your mindset. Everyone is human, therefore everyone makes mistakes. Othello could not see this fact, and as a result killed the love of his life. you however, can avoid Othello’s mistake. Don’t worry about that moment of weakness. Accept it, and move on.